


Steam Power and Sabotage

by LadyReisling



Category: Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Espionage, F/M, Mission Fic, Sabotage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 18:11:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17048111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyReisling/pseuds/LadyReisling
Summary: As World War II brews, Wildcount Volger is recalled from retirement by his old friends.





	Steam Power and Sabotage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kay_obsessive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/gifts).



> !Thank you so much for the great prompt! Happy Yuletide!

Despite rumors of war on the horizon, Otto Klopp had rarely been so content in his life. True, he’d had something of a cushy life as Master of Mechaniks in the court of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but now, years after the end of the war and long since Prince Aleksandar had relinquished his claim to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Klopp knew there was little of his new life that he would trade for the old one. At the Ford Walker Company, he knew not only a steady wage and the satisfaction of a hard day’s work, but also the camaraderie of his friends by his side. Even better, Ford was on the cutting edge of steam-powered walkers for the common man, and Klopp’s expertise from his past life had quickly won him the respect of his colleagues and even Henry Ford himself. 

Klopp, Bauer, and Hoffmann were making their way toward the rooming house they now called home after a few payday drinks at the local bar. Darkness had descended, and snow was gently falling. As they passed the factory, light in the window caught his attention. Strange. No one should be working this late on a Saturday night. In fact, nearly all the men had been with them at the bar. Bauer and Hoffmann hadn’t noticed, absorbed in their conversation, and when Klopp looked again, the light was gone. Maybe he’d imagined it. But still, the memory of that strange light at the factory mingled with the troubling rumors or war, entwined in his dreams, disturbing his slumber, periodically invading his thoughts again during his Sunday off. 

The following three weeks flew by, driving thoughts of the strange light from his head until he was reading the newspaper over another Saturday lunch break. The  _ New York World  _ carried news of the outbreak of another war in Europe, and he thought often of his friends back home. No doubt with a war on, Doctor Barlow and her Zoological Society would be right in the thick of it, and if she had her way, Alek, Deryn, and Volger would be by her side. And he’d no doubt the persuasive power of Doctor Nora Darwin Barlow would win the day. 

He was still thinking of his old friends as he locked the factory that night. Just as he turned the key in the lock, he noticed a light still burning in a storeroom. Strange. His weekly paperwork had kept him long after the workers ended their day and went to spend their paychecks at the bar or the evening with their families. No one should have been left in the building. Maybe someone had forgotten to turn the light off by mistake. Letting himself back into the factory, he approached the storeroom, only to be stopped cold by the sounds of voices. 

_ “Heavy water shipment coming in...ready soon…” _

Heavy water. Where had he heard that term before? And recently? It had something to do with the war in Europe, he was certain...but what? A new weapon? 

Alek would know. Aleksandar of Hohenberg, now known as Alexander Cohen and an ordinary college student at Columbia, had the best head for mechaniks Klopp had ever encountered. Turning on his heel, he left the factory, rushed through the night to his rented room, and sat at his small desk to write a letter. 

~*~

Doctor Nora Darwin Barlow, Head Boffin and Chief Intelligence Officer of the London Zoological Society, paced in her laboratory, Tazza at her side and the latest message from Alexander Cohen, previously known as His Serene Highness Aleksandar, Crown Prince of Hohenberg, clutched in her hand as she stared daggers at the paper. Not even ten years since the end of the previous war, and already there was another war. Had the world learned nothing from the tremendous loss of life the last time around? 

Currently, Alek and Deryn were in New York, posing as university students. From there, they could easily keep abreast of new scientific developments from the Darwinist labs at Columbia. Deryn, with her extraordinary talent with the beasties, stood in good stead to become the first female candidate for a degree in hybridization from Columbia. Alek was more interested in hybridization of another kind, and spent his school time on steam-powered Daimler engines and his spare time tinkering with blending the Daimler engines with Deryn’s newly-developed beasties, creating new types of walkers that used both animal DNA and steam to run. In the meantime, he kept in close touch with Klopp, Hoffmann, and  Bauer at the Ford Walker Company. Both of them at the forefront of biology, technology, and information, just as she’d taught them. Despite the bad tidings in Alek’s letter, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride as she read it over one more time. 

_ Dear Doctor Barlow, _

_ I hope this letter finds you and Tazza well and the Zoological Society running smoothly. The New York World last week carried a story of a new airship you are working on. Eddie Malone reports that it s a flying elephantine made with the life threads of an eagle mixed with a bit of rhinoceros. Is this true? What could the purpose of this contraption possibly be? It seems a bit bizarre even for you. And as Deryn says, Eddie Malone was always full of clart.  _

_ Deryn’s research goes well; she has nearly perfected instant-freezing snails that will seize up a steam-powered engine in time of war. When she isn’t working on that, she and I together have made some interesting developments with intelligent walkers. They move like machinery but have the brains of a beastie, so no pilots are needed to man the saunters. Bauer and Hoffman feel that these might be useful for farmers, but right now, they don’t work. We could really use Klopp’s advice, but Ford keeps him busy and he says I surpassed his knowledge of mechaniks years ago in a Stormwalker. That may be so, but this project is not something he--nor I--have worked on before. _

_ Speaking of Klopp, our mutual friend reports happenings over at Ford Walker that may be of interest to you. I have enclosed a copy of his letter for your perusal.  _

_ The end of the school term is fast approaching and I must get to my studying. Deryn sends her love to you, and of course, to Tazza. Do let us know if we can be of use to you, or to the Society.  _

_ At your service, _

_ Alexander Cohen _

The following page contained Klopp’s letter, hastily scratched in the code they had devised. According to the observations of Klopp, Bauer, and Hoffmann, something strange was afoot at Ford Walker. Coming home from an evening at the pub, they had seen mysterious lights on in a usually-dark room at the Ford Walker plant. Further investigation had revealed a steam machine, small enough to transport, and yet using heavy water to create steam, thus generating enough power to blow up a small city. It could be nothing, but then again, with a war on, the news disconcerted her. 

That was the trouble with steam engines, she reflected. This could be nothing. Or it could change the course of the war. And the Zoological Society, even with Alek stationed abroad, simply didn’t have the knowledge of mechaniks that it needed to evaluate the potential danger of this device, whatever it might be. 

Tazza, sensing her unease, nuzzled affectionately into her knee with a low growl. 

“You’re right, of course,” she told the Tasmanian tiger. “This isn’t for the Zoological Society alone. We need someone who knows both mechaniks and beasties.”

This was a job for Volger. Walking briskly over to her lab table, seizing paper and ink as she whistled for a messenger tern, Nora Darwin Barlow began to write a letter. 

~*~

The sun was setting over the distant mountains as Ernst Volger finished his evening walk through the forest preserve near his ancestral home. This close to Midwinter, darkness fell quickly, and the bite in the air made him grateful for his fur-lined gloves. Though  years had passed since his time on the run with the then-Prince of Hohenberg and heir-apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary, he still had a strong distaste for cold, as it reminded him of long nights in the Stormwalker and then hiding in the remote mountain fortress. 

As the shadows grew longer, he turned back toward the manor house he had once called home. Though it wasn’t in disrepair, it was definitely a bit shabbier now than it had been when he had been Wildcount Ernst Volger, personal friend of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Now, he mainly used it as a base for expeditions to check the balance of nature as fabricated species had been introduced into the wilds since the end of the war. In fact, he was here only for a short visit now--back at the house, his trunk stood ready for departure. Come morning, he’d be headed for Britain again, back to his place at the Zoological Society. Back to Nora.  _ Back to Doctor Barlow, _ he corrected himself. 

A stack of letters awaited him on the hall table, placed there by the one servant who still lived in the old manor house. Only one caught his attention, addressed as it was in her fine script. He broke the wax seal bearing the crest of the Zoological Society and read:

_ Count Volger: _

_ Our young friends abroad require your assistance in a matter of some urgency. Please return to the London Zoo at your earliest convenience. _

_ Yours, _

_ N.D.B. _

In all the years of their association, Nora-- _ Doctor Barlow _ \--had never sent him an urgent summons. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to get back to London. 

He met Doctor Barlow in her lab at the Society as soon as he arrived in London, not even bothering to retire to his hotel to wash away the coal dust and travel-weariness. There would be time for that later. Alek needed his help, and the promise he’d made to help the young man all those years ago still held. He found Barlow pacing in her lab, the Tasmanian tiger matching her steps, looking disheveled with worry. After serving him tea in true British fashion, she got straight to business.

“Ernst, what do you know about heavy water?”

He chewed his lip, thinking. “Klopp would know better, but my understanding is, it’s used to weaponize steam. Normal steam powers engines. Heavy steam builds pressure faster. Enough of it would be used to...create a bomb maybe.”

“But no ordinary bomb?” The boffin studied him over the rim of her teacup. 

He shook his head. “Again, Klopp would know better, but small steam bombs cause minor damage. A large enough explosive device powered with heavy steam could level a small city easily. And there’d be no end of the human misery. The lucky ones would be killed instantly. Those who aren’t so lucky…” he trailed off, unable to share the images filling his mind with the pretty boffin. 

“Say no more, Ernst. It’s clear that Klopp needs backup. You and our young friends are the ones to provide it.”

“Doctor Barlow, if Klopp and Alek and Deryn can’t stop this thing on their own...they don’t need me. I was a wildcount and fencing tutor, not a mechanik.”

“I won’t have you underestimate yourself, Volger. You are invaluable to this operation, just as you were back on the  _ Leviathan _ .”

“I was a replacement prisoner back on the  _ Leviathan _ .”

“You were the Crown Prince’s political adviser at great personal cost. Will you let him down now?”

“No, of course not.”

“Good. There’s a commercial breather headed for New York the day after tomorrow. Make your preparations. Whatever you need, the Society can provide.” She reached across the table and grasped his hand for a fleeting moment. “If you have need of anything, send word. And Ernst? Be careful.”

~*~

Thirty-six hours later, Volger was on board a hydrogen breather headed for New York. Designed for commercial travel, it made even his prison quarters aboard the  _ Leviathan  _ seem like a luxury liner. After a bumpy ride, he landed in New York, where Alek met him at the landing strip. It had been years since he’d seen the young man in person, and Volger was taken aback by how much he had grown to look like his late father. 

“Good to see you, Count,” Alek greeted him, taking the older man’s traveling case and offering a firm handshake.

“I’m not a count any longer, Aleksandar, just as you’re no longer a crown prince.” 

“In any case, it’s good to see you. I’m afraid catching up will have to wait though; Deryn is waiting for us back at the lab. Klopp will be coming by to brief us when he finishes at the factory for the day. We’re on a bit of a tight time frame.” The former royal hailed a passing walker and in no time was escorting him through the halls of one of Columbia University’s research and development buildings. Deryn greeted him with a handshake as Alek had done, and he spent a few moments observing her latest work,a glass case covered in frost and filled with what looked like shellfish.

“They’re ice snails,” she explained, noticing his interest. “Intended to be an easy to transport weapon of sabotage. Life threads of a few arctic fishes with freshwater mussels. Rather the opposite of what we used in the Air Service. Stick a few of these in a barking great walker, and the boiler should freeze in a matter of moments.” 

“Miss Sharp, did anyone ever tell you you’re a genius?”

She grinned. “No, Your Countship, but I seem to remember you telling me what a barking disaster I was at fencing a time or two.”

“Please forgive me. It seems you simply hadn’t found your calling yet.”

Klopp arrived soon after, Bauer and Hoffmann in tow and a document case tucked under his arm. 

“Good to see you, Volger,” he greeted without preamble. “Hope you can help us make heads or tails of this mess.” He unrolled a scroll on the table and they bent over it together. “It’s a walker, but not like any walker I’ve ever seen. And as near as I can figure out, a bomb.”

“Barking  _ spiders _ ,” Volger swore, borrowing one of Deryn’s favorite choice phrases. “You’re right. It  _ is _ a walking bomb. And you say it’s powered by heavy water?” A heaviness settled into his gut at Klopp’s nod. “It’s exactly what you feared, then.This thing could level an entire city. Massive loss of property and life.”

“There are two of them. No idea where they’re being sent,” Klopp informed them. 

“Then they have to be stopped,” Volger said, “And the sooner the better.”

Klopp shook his head. “That’s no easy task. The men working on this are doing it in secret with tools I don’t have access to.” He pointed out two separate places on the schematic. “We could poke holes here and here and cause a slow leak, but there’s no guarantee that wouldn’t be detected and repaired.” 

But Volger was ready with a better plan. “Miss Sharp, how viable are your ice snails?”

“They haven’t been tested, Your Countship. Not on anything this big, and not with heavy water.”

“No time like the present,” Klopp said, pulling a bottle from his jacket. “I sneaked this out of the shop. Miss Sharp?”

Deryn produced a beaker, into which Klopp poured the heavy water. Then Alek used tongs to pull one snail from the tank. Frost curled up the metal as he carried it across the room and plopped it into the beaker. There was a moment’s pause, then the beaker shattered as the water inside froze solid. 

Volger grinned across the table at Deryn. “I think it’s safe to say it works, Miss Sharp. How fast can you produce several hundred of these creatures?”

~*~

For the next ten days, all of them worked around the clock. Klopp and his men supplied information about how to get into the factory after-hours and studied the walking bombs until they knew every detail of the workings. Alek and Deryn, it seemed, never left the lab. One tank of ice snails became seven, then a dozen, and they developed and tested containers for transporting them. 

When night fell on the tenth day, everything was ready. Klopp sat in his office at Ford Walker, waiting for the signal knock. When it came, he breathed a prayer and walked out the back door as Deryn, Alek, and Volger sneaked in the front. He headed to the rendezvous point, not daring to look back, nursing a drink at a nearly-empty bar and trying not to look suspicious. After what seemed like hours, a massive explosion sounded in the distance. 

“What the cripes was that?” asked the barkeep, dropping a bottle of vodka in shock. Klopp followed him out the front door in time to see columns of smoke and flame erupting from the Ford Walker factory. 

“I don’t know, but it looks like I need to get back to work,” Klopp replied, shoving a bill into the man’s hand to pay for his drink. As he ducked into the alley where they had agreed to meet, he breathed a sigh of relief to see three silhouettes waiting in the dark.

“Report?” he breathed.

“Operation Penguinesque successful, Master Klopp,” replied Alek’s voice. 

“But I’m afraid Mr. Ford will have some rebuilding to do,” Volger added. 

~*~

Ten days and one more bumpy breather-ride later, Volger landed in London and made his way to Regent’s Park and the London Zoo. Nora Darwin Barlow answered at his first knock on her office door.

“Ernst.”

“Doctor.”

“Our congratulations on the success of Penguinesque, Count Volger. I expect you’ll be wanting a ticket home, once your report is filed?”

“I’m not a count any longer, Doctor Barlow, and home isn’t home any longer. But I’ve seen my true purpose now. Our friends abroad need help, and I feel I’m the one to give it.”

“You’re sure of this?”

“I am.”

“Then it will take a few days to make it official, but welcome to the London Zoological Society, Agent Volger.”

  
  



End file.
